The present inventions relate to a merchandising system. The present inventions more specifically relate to a merchandising system, of a type having a divider system or shelf system providing for the selective adjustment of the width or spacing of a shelf division or divisions.
It is known to provide a merchandising system on a shelf of a shelving unit so that some type of product or merchandise may be stocked and presented to potential customers in a more orderly or organized manner. According to one known arrangement, a merchandising system will provide several dividers attached to a single front connection piece. The dividers may be adjusted, allowing for the system to accommodate variously sized products. However, in this arrangement, when one display area or “facing” needs to be adjusted, adjacent facings in the system will also have to be adjusted in order to accommodate the same sized product in adjacent facings. As a result, adjustments of the systems tend to become more involved, even to resize only one product facing, because it may be necessary to resize or adjust other (or all) of the facings in the system. Also, adjustments in this arrangement become more involved as the number of dividers increase. In way of example, one known arrangement may be provided on a shelf, the arrangement having fifteen dividers forming fourteen facings. Should one facing require adjustment to accommodate a product of different size, all the remaining facings will also require adjustment in order to keep the same relative spacing of the facings. As a result, these systems may require an increased amount of time and/or effort in order to resize or reconfigure a merchandising system when products and product sizes change.
It would be advantageous to provide a merchandising system that would allow for independent adjustment of a division (which may be a display area, “facing,” cell, compartment, etc.) without requiring adjustment of adjacent divisions within the system. It would also be advantageous to provide a merchandising system in which the size of one division could be enlarged or reduced without enlarging or reducing the size of an adjacent division. It would further be advantageous to provide a merchandising system with divisions that are conveniently and selectively adjustable in size or shape. It would further be advantageous to provide a merchandising system that provides for the selective movement of a divider to discrete locations. It would further be advantageous to provide a merchandising system that provides for modularity in the construction and assembly of the merchandising system. It would further be advantageous to provide a merchandising system that could be installed on a shelf or shelving unit. It would further be advantageous to provide a merchandising system that would allow for a relatively simple connection between two divider panels. It would further be advantageous to provide a merchandising system having one or more of these or other advantageous features.